Guitar Setup....

[mcgrupperton]

I was wondering if any of you have had this experience.

I dig out my old Schecter c-1 classic I used to play all throughout college before I replaced it with my new one. I go to find my old guitar tech and he has vanished..and I really really want to get it setup so I can start using it again. I'm driving down the road and there's this quaint music shop in which I decide to stop and see if they can fix it up.

They tell me they can, and I proceed to talk to their tech guy in great detail how I want it setup, I wanted the pots cleaned and a new 5-w pickup selector, as well as intonation blah blah.

I get it back 4 days later and it's working great. Yesterday, which is about 3 weeks after getting it back the Neck pickup selector is not working, the center pot has to be rolled a certain way to carry signal, and I checked the intonation and it seems off. I find this to be unacceptable.

One other thing I noticed which didn't occur to me until things started to get crappy was when I picked up the guitar, there was a brand new set of string on it, however, they were not stretched or anything and I had to proceed to tune and tune and tune as is the case with new strings....so my last question is...HOW COULD HE SETUP THE INTONATION WITH BRAND NEW STRINGS WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN STRETCHED AND TIGHTENED TO HOLD A NOTE?

am I wrong to think he never did the intonation? And shitty electronic work...I'm very frustrated by this, and I did not to this myself because I wanted it professionally done...I feel like I could have done better...

Thoughts/opinions/similar experienced with shitty techs??

[ColForbin]

That's outright garbage.  In the past if a guitar tech did something to my guitar that I didn't like I made him fix it for free.  In my case, he wired my pickup selector backwards, so when I selected the neck, I got the bridge and vice versa.  I wouldn't take no for an answer, but I would be cordial.  People are usually more receptive about this sort of thing when you're not tearing a strip off them.  Be firm my brother.

[mcgrupperton]

Yea I'm really hoping he will fix it for free. I have never worked with him before and I will be nice but to the point. What is really annoying me is that the strings were clearly just put on before I picked up the guitar and they were still stretching, so I don't believe he set the intonation at all. The problem is after I picked it up, it was pretty much time to go on the NE leg of tour so some time has passed and showing back up there 2-3 weeks after may pose some "YOU did it to YOUR guitar" talk from him. I really hope it doesn't come to that..but I am prepared..I will wear a heady Phish or Trey shirt there during my cordial phase, and if he gives me problems I will rip off my heady shirt for a Slipnot or Opeth shirt and rage on him. I'm j/k about some of that...haha.

[raisingfreen]

mcgrupp, if I may offer an opinion. This story only stands to get worse. If you don't have too much money into the wanna-bee tech (say more than $30-$70) just walk away and maybe warn a fellow brother about this place. In tough times even in-experienced music stores need to make a buck. Seems everyone has a guitar tech these days. However as you have seen, finding good one that tells it to you straight (and knows their shit) is harder to come by. Get a soldering iron, automotive feeler gauge, some small tools, electronic spray etc... and get crackin. You can do it. Check out the kit on hard truckers (if its still available), it's all right there and if you can play the intro to Fluffhead, you can intonate and do a basic set up on a guitar.

BTW, it hadn't occurred to me that you merely did this out of convenience so sorry if I implied that you couldn't already do a set up.

[mcgrupperton]

no worries. I can set it up and do some soldering, but this time I really wanted it to be as perfect as can be so I thought I'd try a "professional" haha.